Employee education is the first step to creating an inclusive workplace.
Written by Jeff Rumage
Sensitivity training is needed in today’s working environment — not only to help prevent harassment and discrimination, but also to create an inclusive workplace that makes employees of all backgrounds feel like they belong.
Sensitivity training is an educational program designed to increase awareness, understanding and empathy for people of different backgrounds.
Sensitivity training teaches employees how to be aware and respectful of the different perspectives and experiences of their coworkers. The goal is to increase people’s awareness of their own unconscious biases, as well as prevent harassment, discrimination and bullying in the workplace.
Sensitivity training can take the form of an online course or in-person sessions, and it typically centers around self-reflection, encouraging employees to address their own biases through group conversations, interactive videos and other formats.
Sessions often cover topics like race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion and disability. Some types of sensitivity training, like sexual harassment or anti-harassment training, may be required by state and municipal laws. In states that don’t require this training, many employers still offer it to prevent harassment and create a workplace that feels safe and welcoming to all employees.
“The purpose is to try and generate an inclusive workforce where people are mindful of different cultural needs and boundaries of different collective types of people,” Caitlin Collins, an organizational psychologist at Betterworks, told Built In.
Hannah Stegen, co-founder and chief product officer of CultureAlly, told Built In that sensitivity training boils down to a version of the golden rule: “[Sensitivity training] changes that notion to treat others the way they want to be treated, recognizing that we might not always be the best judge of what other individuals might need because we don’t hold that experience.”
Sensitivity training establishes expectations for appropriate conduct in the workplace. It’s designed to help prevent harassment, bullying and other elements of a hostile work environment that can damage employee morale and pose legal troubles for the organization. It also comes with a number of upsides.
An environment where employees feel like they can express their authentic self without judgment empowers everyone to be more creative and collaborative, which will lead to more innovation. Employees will also feel more comfortable talking through challenges with one another, avoiding potential conflicts and building trust in the process.
“We might perceive someone’s behavior one way, but there might have been some disconnect with their intentions,” Stegen said. “Instead of jumping to those conclusions, have a conversation and build those relationships with your colleagues so you don’t have that misunderstanding of intentions and behaviors.”
Sensitivity training contributes to a culture of transparency where communication is encouraged. In this type of atmosphere, employees feel confident bringing up any concerns with managers, and managers have the awareness to listen without judgment and help employees work through any issues they’re facing.
Sensitivity training can help teams identify and remove biased practices from their recruiting process, encouraging recruiters to pursue candidates from a larger talent pool. And when candidates of marginalized backgrounds see the intentional steps a company has taken to cultivate a diverse and inclusive environment, they are more likely to want to join.
With the knowledge to recognize forms of harassment and bullying, employees can quickly call out these behaviors and hold each other accountable. In addition, sensitivity training enables employees to be more honest about any biases and microaggressions they possess, so they can check their blindspots and contribute to a safer work environment.
If companies take measures to make employees feel a sense of belonging, those employees will feel more satisfied with their jobs and the workplace as a whole. They’ll also be more likely to stay, which reduces the costs associated with hiring and training new employees.
“Imagine if you really knew people for who they were, and they felt understood,“ Jane Hyun, founder of cultural fluency firm Hyun & Associates told Built In. “They’re going to work hard for you. They’re going to want to stay with you. They’re going to want to do the best job for you.”
While diversity and harassment are the two main categories of sensitivity training, they often cover a range of topics:
Sensitivity training is most effective when it’s offered on a regular basis, because each session can build on the one before it, helping employees recall information and encouraging them to remain vigilant about workplace issues.
Left unaddressed, workplace incidents — such as an employee making an offensive joke — could lead to a lawsuit, hurt employee morale and make workers question why the employee wasn’t disciplined. At the same time, singling out this employee may discourage them from reflecting on their decisions. A sensitivity training addresses the problem without making it about an individual, showing employees they have a collective responsibility to eliminate this behavior
Toxic workplaces may struggle with bullying, harassment and other issues on a company-wide level, but even thriving businesses may face challenges. For example, a company that’s expanding internationally may need to train its employees to work with teams from different countries and cultures. Providing sensitivity training during major shifts can help employees adapt and feel confident navigating a changing workplace.
Sensitivity training can equip managers with the knowledge and techniques to support employees who face unique obstacles in the workplace and guide difficult conversations. This way, new managers can feel confident encouraging employees to put things on the table and working with them to determine concrete actions and solutions.
Sensitivity training is an important tool in educating employees about diversity, but it can’t be the end of the conversation. If sensitivity training is seen as a mere legal requirement, employees are unlikely to retain the information or apply it in their workplace interactions.
“The goal of sensitivity training should be to create behavior change,” Collins said. “It shouldn’t be a check-the-box compliance process.”
Employees are more likely to live the lessons from sensitivity training if they see company leaders modeling inclusive behavior. This will help establish organizational norms of what acceptable behavior looks like.
“You need to see it happen, and it has to be actually illustrated in the culture of a company to be taken seriously,” Hyun said.
Companies can regularly reinforce the learnings from sensitivity training through recurring diversity programming. At Betterworks, for example, DEI groups regularly host workshops in which they share their experiences and encourage others to do the same.
“I think it’s more personal and means more when you start to hear from your own co-workers on their experience,” Collins said.
It’s important, though, that employees undergo sensitivity training before taking on these more personal conversations. Otherwise, it could be derailed by employees’ unconscious biases.
Companies should be providing employee feedback channels to learn about unacceptable behavior and creating systems of accountability to address those behaviors.
“It takes mindfulness and repetition until a new behavior becomes normal,” Collins said. “Without the mindfulness and the repetition, nobody pays attention to it, because there’s no accountability for them.”
Sensitivity training can happen in person with a diversity consultant, but there’s also a wide selection of online classes for organizations to choose from. Here are a few popular vendors.
Ethena’s DEI Training program talks about the importance of diversity, different types of identities, types of biases and microaggressions. It also offers strategies for bystander intervention and speaking up against microaggressions.
EasyLlama’s sexual harassment prevention course talks about the different types of sexual harassment, like quid pro quo and online harassment, and it also discusses other types of harassment, like bullying and abusive conduct. The training also offers guidance for reporting and preventing harassment.
CultureAlly’s sensitivity training program includes courses on the foundations of DEI, unconscious bias, inclusive workplaces and inclusive leadership. The course on creating inclusive workplaces will teach employees how to use inclusive language and some best practices for creating an inclusive environment.
Traliant’s online diversity training discusses the benefits of creating an inclusive workplace. It also talks about unconscious bias, microaggressions and challenging one’s assumptions. It also offers tips for giving and accepting feedback.
Paradigm IQ’s allyship training program is a three-part course that explains what coworkers can do to be a better ally to their coworkers from underrepresented identities. The training also touches on allies’ role in racial justice and how to use more inclusive language.
Sensitivity training refers to an educational program that teaches employees how to prevent harassment and discrimination in the workplace. It addresses harmful stereotypes about underrepresented groups, raises awareness of unconscious biases and offers advice for creating a more inclusive work environment.
Sensitivity training can provide valuable information and guidance for employees who are receptive to learning about creating an inclusive workplace. To be more effective, sensitivity training should be reinforced through inclusive leadership, recurring educational programming and a strong culture of allyship and inclusivity in the workplace.
One example of sensitivity training is a webinar class on diversity and inclusion. The class might challenge employees’ unconscious biases, give examples of harmful microaggressions and offer tips for intervening when another employee is being harassed or bullied because of their identity.
Employees at every level of an organization need sensitivity training. The only way to ingrain certain ways of thinking and behaving into a company’s culture is to get all employees on the same page. It’s especially crucial to train managers and company leadership, so they can set an example of what appropriate behavior looks like.
